Key fastener



April 24, 1934. w so 1,956,542

KEY FASTENER Filed Oct. 24, 1932 Patented Apr. 24, 1934 UNITED STATES KEY FASTENER Louis P. Wilson, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor to Anna P. Wilson, Cleveland, Ohio Application October 24, 1932, Serial No. 639,182

1 Claim.

This invention relates to a key fastener and has for its principal object to provide a device of this character which can be readily produced by high speed methods with a minimum of material and which shall be more efiective and convenient than similar devices heretofore known.

I attain the foregoing and other and more limited objects in and through the construction hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which Fig. l is a fragmentary sectional elevatiton showing my improved key fastener in position of use and Fig. 2 is an edge view of the key fastener removed from the door. I am well aware that prior to my invention it has been proposed to make a key fastener from a hook shaped piece of wire, the hook of which is adapted to surround the knob of the door while the shank extends through an opening in the key. Such a device is shown in the patent to Henry S. Wilcox No. 43,147. If such a device is constructed of material having suflicient strength to resist efforts at bending such as may be exerted by a house breaker familiar with such devices, it must be either of excessively heavy gauge material or of hard steel, both of which are objec tionable since they increase the cost of manufacture and render the price greater than consistent with general use of the device. Such a device furthermore is apt to be misplaced or lost or to be removed from looking engagement with the key by children too small to understand the operation.

Referring now to the accompanying drawing, I have shown a fragment of a door through 3 which extends a lock operating shaft 10 carrying at either end a knob 12 provided with a stem 13. Below the stem 13 is the usual keyhole 14 receiving a key 15. Surrounding the stem 13 of the knob is the hook portion H of my improved key fastener which is integral with the shank portion S thereof. The hook portion H has an opening which preferably is very slightly narrower than the diameter of the stem 13 whereby slight pressure must be exerted to place the key fastener in 5 the position shown in Fig. 1. Adjacent the free end of the hook portion is an integral abutment adapted to engage a door knob shank. The shank S is adapted to extend through the opening in the key 15 and prevent any considerable rotation thereof. By a comparison of the showings of Figs. 1 and 2 it will be evident that the key fastener is made of comparatively thin sheet metal and that in every part it is wide relative to its thickness. It will be obvious that when the device is made to a size of the order of that shown in the drawing, a very considerable force will have to be exerted on the key to turn it against the resistance to bending which'the shank S will offer. In fact, the strength required would probably in most cases result in twisting of the shank of the key rather than bending of the key look.

I also find it advantageous to provide a small opening 16 in the end of the hook portion H to which is attached a chain 17 provided with a hook 18 at its end. This chain may be secured to the key in the manner shown to resist dislodgment of the key fastener or its removal to inoperative position. Furthermore the key fastener may be attached by the chain to prevent its becoming misplaced.

From the foregoing it will be obvious that I have provided a simple, cheap and eiiicient key fastener and while I have shown and described the preferred embodiment I wish it understood that I am not limited to the details'of the disclosure-but only in accordance with the spirit and scope of the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

A key fastener comprising a thin fiat member having a hook-shaped portion and a shank adapted to enter an opening in a key and a part adapted to engage around the stem of the adjacent the plane of the hook lying in the plane of the material whereby thin gauge stock will have sufficient strength to resist turning of a key from the outside, said hook portion being provided adjacent its free end with an integral abutment to engage a door knob shank.

LOUIS P. WILSON. 

